Marui almost didn't wake up. He had been so occupied with getting to know his little Tsu-Tsu that time had completely gotten away from him. BUT, he was now a reborn, repackaged, and all-new ultra responsible Marui Bunta, so he was able to wake up in the end (but just barely though).
He looked at his little cousin, sweetly slumbering away, debating whether or not he should wake her up by body slamming her or yelling into her ear. His plans were unfortunately foiled when his aggressive stare woke her up and she was left to groggily stare into his eyes.
"... Hello...?" she mumbled.
He decided to answer her by gracefully slamming his full (slightly heavier than a feather) weight down onto her, "Wake up if you still wanna come to practice with me." he grinned.
She groaned as he began to slowly roll his body closer and closer towards her head before finally pinning her face down into the bed with his shoulder, "I can't get up if you're on me!" she yelled into his Dragonball bedsheets, but it just came out muffled instead. Marui spared a look at the clock on his windowsill before sighing and finally getting off of her. She glared up at him and childishly turned to face the wall and flapped the sheets over her head.
"Are you mad at me?" Marui whined. An annoyed huff was all he got, "Fine! You can stay in bed while I make breakfast, okay? See you soon!". He gave her one last eyeroll before rushing down to the kitchen, in hindsight he probably shouldn't have wasted so much time annoying her, there was a possibility that he might be late for the first time today. If he was, well… a shudder ran through his body as he thought about what Sanada (let alone Yukimura) would do to him today (he crossed his fingers and hoped that they'd spare his life). As he was speed-running through his usual breakfast routine, he phoned Yanagi, hoping to god he'd be able to drive them (it was a yes!). He finally settled on a quick but filling breakfast (and lunch), just as he was about to go and wake his cousin up, she met him downstairs with a pep in her step.
He unceremoniously shoved a little lunch box into her hands before pushing her out the door, "Yanagi's outside, let's go". She wasn't even able to wonder who this Yanagi was before she was shoved into a black car. "Good morning Yanagi-san! Thanks so much for driving us today!" her cousin chirped, she quickly repeated his words politely. Yanagi-san turned her neck around to get a look at her.
"Hi sweetheart, I've never seen you before. What's your name?" she said in the typical 'Mom when her child brings home new friends' voice. Her voice was impressive, but Tsuki's was better.
"My name's Tsuki!" she piped cheerfully with a smile, "I'm Bunta's cousin, I just got into the country last night!"
She could see Yanagi-san's eyebrow rise, "Oh? Will you be transferring to Rikkai?", Tsuki nodded. "Well I'm sure," she side-eyed her son sitting in the passenger seat, "that my boy would love to show you around the area. After all, it's his job as student council, isn't that right, Renji?" "... Yes, mom."
Tsuki quickly put her hands up to decline, "Oh no, it's okay! My cousin can show me around!" she panicked.
"It's fine," Yanagi finally spoke, before turning to look at her (with his eyelids!) for the first time since they got into the car, "You can ask me anything about school, have you gotten your schedule yet?"
She gave a little nod before showing him the email that the school had sent over on her phone. He took a good hard look at it (she didn't know that it was possible to see through eyelids) before speaking, "Hmm… You got put into my homeroom, probably because so many exchange students left last term. You also have three classes with Yukimura, art with Yagyuu, music with Sanada and home ec. with Jackal and your cousin."
Marui excitedly squealed at the thought of his sweet little Tsu-Tsu being his new cooking partner. He could already see it, the dynamic duo, "Tsu-Buns" would be their team name (would also be a great bakery shop name).
Yanagi let Marui have his moment before continuing, "Has the school emailed you it's map yet?", "No" she mumbled. He clicked his tongue before whipping his own phone out and inputting himself as a new contact and sending her it.
He handed her phone back (yellow with this month's favourite Hello Kitty charms), "There, I've sent it to you and now you have my contact information. If you need anything, don't hesitate to message me.". She softly thanked him, hopefully he did that because he wanted to and not just because of pressure from his mom. But if it was because of the former then she was happy! She just made a new friend!
The rest of the short drive was filled with approving looks from Yanagi-san through the rearview mirror. So great that day one (1) in a new country and already mothers were looking to matchmake her with their sons (not that said son wasn't cute, but still!).
As Yanagi-san dropped them off at the local tennis courts she beckoned Tsuki over by rolling down her window, "You're such a sweet girl, Tsuki. You really must come over for dinner sometime!"
"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother you guys." she sweatdropped.
Yanagi-san grabbed her hands, "No no! I insist! Here, give me your phone. I'll put in my contact details so we can have you and your guardians over! Are you staying with the Marui's?", "No, just my mum and I.", "That's great! We'd love to have her over!". After she said all she had to say, she drove off. Tsuki and the boys looked down at her phone and saw that Yanagi-san had really put the effort into filling every single field there was for a contact. Address, work address, mobile number, home number, work number (with extension), husband's number, grandparent's number, personal and work emails and daytime work hours. (it was a bit excessive, just a bit).
Tsuki blinked at Yanagi, "Do you think your mom likes me?"
"Not sure, probably." he shrugged.
Marui shook his head, "That was so out of character for your mom. She's never done that with me!"
"That's because you're not a girl, Marui."
"How would she know?", when he saw that he had managed to shock Yanagi, he couldn't help but tease him more, "How would you know?"
Yanagi huffed, "Marui, I have seen you naked more than enough times in the locker rooms than I really care to think about. Also, correction: You are not a pretty girl."
Taken aback, Marui felt quite offended, "Woah woah woah! That was uncalled for! For all we know, I could be a very pretty girl in an alternate universe.", "But this isn't an alternative universe, now is it Marui?".
Tsuki couldn't help but snicker, "He's got you there, Bunta. If you were a girl, I think you'd look the exact same," she paused for dramatic effect, "in my opinion.".
Marui sniffled at the betrayal, "Now you're teaming up with people to bully me?!".
"Not my fault you get offended easy."
Yanagi couldn't help but sigh at the boy's antics, it was best to just start walking towards their courts before Marui actually began crying (T minus 47 seconds according to previous data).
As they neared the team's favourite courts, Yanagi waved over to Yukimura. "I've brought Marui and his cousin." jerking his thumb behind him at the bickering pair in lieu of greeting.
Yukimura looked behind his friend at the two, completely dismissing the teammate (seeing Marui so often got boring) and instead focussing on the girl. She was petite, ridiculously so. She almost looked like a storybook fairy: small, wispy, pastel pink hair, and big eyes. He was also rather satisfied to finally see somebody who was thinner than he was, 'Looks like I can finally beat somebody in a fistfight'. As they got closer and closer, the girl seemed to close in on herself, almost as if she was afraid of him (she should be).
"Mura-buchou! This is Nakamura Tsuki! The cousin I told you would be coming today! Say hi!". "Hi!" she piped while raising her eyebrows, canting her head to the side and stretching her lips over her teeth in a pathetic excuse for a smile (not one of her best moments).
Yukimura's eyes shined with mirth as he gave a little wave, "Tsu-Tsu! Listen up! Are you listening?" she vigorously nodded. "Now, after a long year in the hospital and making a miraculous recovery in order to seize victory yet again for this year's National trophy is… drumroll please!" he paused and looked at her meaningfully, only continuing when she gave him his resounding drum rolls on her thighs. "Our captain! The pride and joy of Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku Chuu! The Child of God himself! Yukimura Seiichi!" he announced with a flourish.
Tsuki blinked and listened to Yukimura when he began speaking, "Now, before you ask, I wasn't hospitalised for anything serious,", "Okay, that's grea-", "it was just stage two lung cancer."
Tsuki's eyes widened before she began to sputter, "Oh my god! That must have bee-", "Haha, just joking!" he grinned at her scrunched little face, "It was just a malignant brain tumour!"
"Umm… ah that's horr-", "Just kidding! It was actually just a viral infection that almost paralyzed me from the waist down!". He chuckled as her eyes began to water, she was close to tears at this point, "O-okay, umm… A-are you okay!?". He smiled at her pretty eyes looking up at him (he was taller than her haha) through her lashes.
He couldn't resist patting her head, "Alright, I'll tell you the truth. I had an immune disorder.". He gave her a soft smile, "Not joking! This time. I promise!" he beamed at her when she gave a shaky little nod.
Yanagi shook his head, somebody new just meant somebody new to mess with. Poor girl. Whatever, moving on. He called all the other regulars over to meet their new friend.
Akaya, you could always count on him to not know basic manners (bless his soul), "Who the hell're you?!" "Akaya!", Sanada slapped the back of his head, "Don't be fucking rude to people!".
Next up was Niou, he sidled up to her, "Don't mind him, my fair lady! He can't help it! He's uh… got a small brain after all that smacking Sanada's given his poor little head!". He cheerfully explained while emphasising his words by putting the poor boy into a headlock and giving him a harsh noogie on the head.
"Talk about first impressions…" Marui mumbled with his head in his hands, "Whatever," he huffed, "I'll introduce you to the guys one by one… I guess.". Marui took a steadying breath, "ANYWAYS! From left to right… We got Yagyuu, pretty cool dude. Next to him, Niou, pretty okay dude. Jackal! He's my best buddy!" he stage-whispered to her. "Then, we have the baby of the team, Akaya, the rude one with the seaweed on his head in case you were wondering. And that's Sanada. Got it?", she nodded, "Great! Let's get to practice!". He led her to the benches, "Now you just sit tight! I'll come on over whenever I get a chance to! If you get bored, you can walk around and get something to eat or just walk home!", he jolted when Sanada began to call him over, "Loveyoubye!" he yelled as he ran onto the courts.
As she watched him walk away, she was left to sit on the bench with Yukimura (the dude who just joked about having three different life-changing medical conditions at once). If he didn't want to talk, then she wouldn't either. For a good couple of moments, Yukimura had been staring at her (she tried to pretend that she didn't see that), her eyes kept shifting towards him before he (finally!) broke the silence, "So… what classes do you have this term? Do you know yet?"
She nodded, she'd give him the benefit of the doubt, "Yanagi-san says that we've got three classes together?" "Oh?" "Pretty sure we have… French, world history and Japanese together."
"Do you have any other classes with any of us?" he asked gently.
Tsuki tried to remember what the hell Yanagi had told her in the car (she was a little preoccupied with staring at his eyelids, just a little). "Mmm… I know I have home ec. with Bunta and Jackal and I don't remember the rest." she shrugged, "All I know is that I've got music and art leftover."
"Music and art… music and art…" Yukimura began to mumble as he began to think, canting his head this way and that as if it would help him think, "Is music… fourth period for you?" he questioned.
She nodded.
Yukimura made unnerving eye contact with her for a much longer period of time than she was comfortable with (guy was apparently also a staring contest champion), "Well… I don't know how to break this to you, but… I think you have music class with Sanada.", Tsuki's eyes shifted across his face confusedly.
"Is there something… wrong with Sanada-san's music class…?" (she learned her lesson about taking this guy's words seriously).
She could see that he was mulling over how to tell her something, his tongue rolling around in his mouth, the imprint of it visible under his cheek. "Well… There's nothing wrong with the class itself. It's just Sanada. Let's just say that his music classes are… legendary at our school!" he smiled. She canted her head towards him, encouraging him to expand on the topic, but he remained silent (fine, keep your secrets!).
While she had nothing to say in response, it opened up a general subject on school to talk about, by the end of today, she'd (probably) have somebody to talk to in class (which was great because she was supposed to spend half the day with this guy everyday). Eventually, their gentle rapport with each other was of course ruined by her red-haired menace of a cousin (who else?).
"Oh? And what'd she say after she found out Sunohara wa-" "Tsu-Tsu! Come hang out with me!" he yelled before aggressively pulling her over to where Niou, Jackal and Kirihara were sitting under a tree. "Hey guys, guess who I have?" he yelled at them before making her sit between himself and Kirihara.
Kirihara looked almost skittish (probably cowed from Marui's glare), "Hi Marui-senpai's cousin… sorry for yelling at you earlier…".
Her cousin craned his neck towards the boy, "Mmm… you can do better than THAT. Try actually apologizing. And use her actual name this time!".
"B-but Marui-senpai! You never told us her name!" Kirihara cried. Jackal shook his head, Marui was just airheaded enough to forget the simplest of things.
Marui chuckled awkwardly, "Oops! This is Tsuki… Nakamura-senpai to you!".
The boy then began to spew out some of the most sincere words he knew, "Senpai! I… pray that you can forgive me! F-for my mean words that I said to you a while ago!" Kirihara turned to her cousin with a scrunched face, "W-was that good?". The boy beamed when Marui gave him The Nod.
She gave him a little smile before patting his little (seaweed) head, "Don't you worry your pretty little head about it!" she puffed up her chest, "This senpai has thick skin! Words do nothing to me!"
Kirihara seemed to turn meek, "Y-you think my head is pretty! Nobody's ever said that to me before!" he pouted. "Everybody else is mean and says I look like seaweed! You're my favourite senpai now!" he beamed at her. Tsuki couldn't help but smile back at his innocent (and a bit airheaded) self.
Marui rolled his eyes before turning his attention over to Niou (oddly quiet, suspicious), "So what did you want to tell us about?"
"What?!" Niou grumbled with his mouth full.
"I said… what did you want to tell us about?!" her cousin purposefully shouted.
"Oh!" Niou exclaimed before plopping his lunch box down and hunting for something in his bag, "Atobe got interviewed by Monthly Pro Tennis, again", he deadpanned while pulling out a magazine.
Jackal finally looked up from his delicious ramen lunch (it looked really good). "What'd they interview him for this time? He practically gave his entire life story on his last feature!"
"Did you really think that Atobe of all people would get tired of talking about himself?" Niou advised sagely.
Jackal seemed to think about it before stammering, "W-well we don't really know Atobe all that well to say anything like that about him…". "Well we know enough about him to know!" Kirihara cut in.
Niou rolled his eyes, "Anyways, this time he gave them a… a fuckin' ah… exclusive house tour.". "Of what?!". "His ah... Tennis Room.".
Tsuki stayed silent and meekly ate her lunch, not understanding anything they were talking about (the fifth wheel some would say).
"His "Tennis Room", why does he have a room specifically for tennis?" Marui pinched the bridge of his nose, "You know what? Nevermind. He's rich.".
At this, Niou seemed to become angry, "Being rich apparently means you're also a fucking liar apparently!". Niou angrily flapped the magazine at Marui's face pointing to a paragraph, "Exhibit A! 'And I will now show you my Hyotei Hall of Heroes', quoted by Inoue Mamoru: senior editor at Monthly Pro Tennis, August 2008!". Niou then jabbed his finger at the photo next to it, "It's a fucking WALL! His 'Hall of Heroes', is a fucking wall!"
"How dare he!". Kirihara was apparently an avid Niou supporter.
"What kind of fucking monster would say such a thing!", Niou was up in arms. "When somebody says a hall… I expect a fucking space that has two walls on either side of me! Is it really that fucking hard to install one, ONE wall in his multibillon dollar house?" Niou grumbled in dissatisfaction.
Her cousin stretched his hand over to him, "Lemme see!" "Take a look for yourself!"
Marui flopped it over his lap, letting Tsuki finally see the face behind the man that doesn't know the difference between one (1) wall and two (2) walls. She was almost in shock, the entire feature took up at least five pages (how much stuff is in it to require five separate pages of content?).
All of the sudden, her cousin began to chuckle, he raised his head to speak to Niou, "Aren't these just the Hyotei Trading Cards made into plaques?". Niou nodded gravely.
"Trading cards of what?" she asked confusedly.
Jackal kindly explained that: "The Hyotei Trading Cards were featured a couple months ago. Atobe made these trading cards as a… business card to give out to all the media people. There's a lot of them.".
Tsuki nodded dumbly before turning her attention to a close-up of one of the cards. The back was a rather pretty grey-blue with the school's logo on it (much cooler than Rikkai's). The front (an exclusive never-before seen 10-star UR holographic Atobe apparently) was a very nice photo of the guy (handsome!). It also had his stat chart, position, and favourite moves along the bottom. She took a look at the Wall of Heroes, the regulars lined up in the middle of the wall (10-star UR Atobe got the middle) before everybody else got their own plaque.
"Who're all these people?" (there was no way 426 people, quoted Inoue Mamoru, would be on a tennis team).
With his mouth full, Niou responded, "The biggest one's are this year's regulars, all the smaller ones are all the members of the club since Atobe first became captain in first year. That's three years worth of people.".
While Tsuki had nothing to say to that, there was a question that plagued her mind, "But he did this… for what?"
"Something about how 'once a person is about to make it to the next stage of life, they begin to realize that their memories are worth more than gold'.", Niou rolled his eyes, "He's just going to fucking high school!"
As everybody continued to talk over her, she flipped through the other pages of the exclusive. The Tennis Room wasn't just his Hall of Heroes, but the other three walls (yes, 416 plaques somehow fit on just one (1) wall) had even more Hyotei memorabilia. The wall opposite the Hall of Heroes was just a major blown-up mural of the school's emblem with three mannequins donned standing in front ('These are my uniforms since first year! My current one will be put on once Nationals is over'). Another wall had pictures of the team while the last wall had rotating podiums of shoes, grip tapes, old racquets ('Oh this? Haha, I've been MVP for the past three years'). She couldn't fathom how dedicated and obsessed with one thing that somebody could be.
As the boys were called back from lunch, she was forced to sit with Lord Yukimura yet again (she was still quite iffy about him, she just couldn't get over his kind of humour).
But Tsuki still had her first day of school tomorrow. While she knew eight people out of 2500 plus, she was (un)prepared to introduce herself six separate times to people (and see Lord Yukimura three times a day).
But alas, this is what she signed up for when she decided that she wanted to spend the year in Japan.